Michael Skubala hails impact of subs in Bristol City win at Preston

Scott Twine had tapped City into a fourth-minute lead but Caleb Wiley slammed the home side level with a 51st-minute equaliser.

Lisav Eissat’s looping 79th-minute header crushed North End hearts before substitute Dom Ballard coolly secured victory seven minutes later.

Skubala said: “Away games in the Championship are always tough. [Those games] can be on a knife edge. They probably had the better first half. We scored a good breakaway goal in transition; we look threatening in transition at the moment.”

Skubala brought on Cameron Pring, Gibson Yah and Jed Wallace all in the 59th minute and the treble change seemed to energise the Robins before Ballard came off the bench to score.

He added: “We changed shape at half-time and I think the subs that came on really affected the game in a positive way and the goals were good. All in all, a good performance, but that’s what it’s sometimes like in the Championship.

“The [Preston] goal was outside the box. We didn’t start the second half as well as we’d have wanted because we’d actually changed shape because we pressed in the way we wanted but didn’t give it enough time to grow.

“But we put the subs on and they punched back and that’s important for me, that if it’s one-all, we make positive changes to try and win the game.”

Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston sit rock-bottom of the table having lost all four of their Championship matches.

He said: “It’s always about results. You’ve heard me say over and over again that it’s determined in both boxes and there’s a great example of that today.

“We created a lot of chances and didn’t take them and they did. Simple. I felt we should’ve been in front at half time. We’re not.

“We started the second half really well, missed some more chances and then scored a goal and then [a] set play, always crucial, and a mistake.

“While they were dangerous and Bristol [City] always carry a threat, throughout the last few years, they’ve always been a really good counter-attacking team in transition, we carried equally as much threat if not more.

“I thought we lost our way a bit towards the end in terms of energy when we were trying to make subs. We still huffed and puffed and still hit the post but I didn’t think we carried the same threat.”